Fact Check: Cruz TV Ad, “Fighter”

The ad: Portrays Cruz as a “proven fighter for liberty” who was inspired by his father’s fight against and flight from an oppressive regime in Cuba. Says he “fought the United Nations defending Texas’ right to execute an illegal alien for murdering two teen-age girls. On cable and broadcast statewide, says the Cruz camp.

The message: Encapsulated in this line: “Ted Cruz, a proven fighter for liberty because his family knows what it means to lose it.”

The facts: Cruz often talks about his father, Rafael Cruz, as his hero and inspiration. The elder Cruz has told of opposing the oppressive Batista regime in Cuba as a teenager, being incarcerated and beaten, then coming to the United States after a family friend helped him to secure a student visa.
Some have noted that Cruz doesn’t always mention that his father was battling Batista rather than Fidel Castro – who was working to overthrow Batista. This ad doesn’t mention the dictator’s name either, although it shows a Batista photograph.
Rafael Cruz said in an interview earlier this year, “We did not know that Castro was a communist. We thought we were fighting to liberate Cuba from a dictator.” He said he was “shocked to see socialism everywhere” after Castro took power and he returned to Cuba for a month.
The court case that Cruz cites was one that he handled as Texas solicitor general under state Attorney General Greg Abbott. The International Court of Justice had said Mexican citizen Jose Medellin and 50 other Mexican inmates sentenced to death in the United States had been wrongly denied access to the Mexican consulate. Medellin’s case involved the gang rape and murder of two Houston teens.
Because of the order, President Bush told the states to review the inmates’ convictions and death penalties. Texas pushed back, saying the president and world court should not be allowed to override state law. Cruz argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in Texas’ favor.